A little bit to the left in your Bible, we'll get to Job chapter 8.
But before we do, I just wanted to mention a few things about the history of our church
tonight, our eight year anniversary.
Going back to 1 Samuel chapter number 7, the Bible reads in verse 11 of 1 Samuel
7,
And the men of Israel went out of Mizpe, and pursued the Philistines and smote them
until they came unto Bethkar.
And Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpe and Shen, and called the name of it
Ebeneezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coasts of Israel, and
the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
So this is where the Philistines are finally defeated, once the children of Israel have
gotten right with God under Samuel's leadership.
And they set up this great stone as a monument, and they name that stone Ebeneezer, and
they say, Hitherto, or to this point, has the Lord helped us.
And the purpose of setting up that stone was to give God all of the glory for the
victories that they had achieved.
And that people would not forget that it was God who helped them get the victory,
and that they didn't do it on their own.
So they put up this giant stone that people would see that stone, and they would hear
the name of the stone, and understand that the name told them, this is to show that
God did it.
We did not do it in our own strength.
It's a monument.
This is something that you'll see all throughout the Bible.
The children of Israel, when they crossed the Jordan River, were supposed to take stones
out of the bottom of the Jordan River, set them up for a monument that they would
be able to point to those stones and tell their children the great things that
God had done for them.
And it's important for us, also as a church in our personal lives, to make monuments.
Now we might not necessarily make a physical monument, but it makes sense to mark the
eighth anniversary of our church's existence, and to stop and to look back over the past,
and to understand where we've come from, where we're going, and to celebrate the
victories that we've had as a church, and to give God all the glory for everything
that we have achieved as a church.
And our church has achieved a lot in the short time that we've existed.
Let me just really briefly tell you the history of our church.
I came here with my family in 2005, and we moved into our house.
We got to town on December 22nd, 2005.
And at that time, we only had the three oldest boys.
And John was just a baby, Solomon and Isaac were little toddlers.
We got here on the 22nd, we had a box of church invites that we'd printed up, and
we had a box of hymnals, and that's pretty much all we had as far as starting the
church.
We marched around in those three days.
I went soul winning every day in those three days, but I also had to buy a mattress to
sleep on, because we didn't bring anything.
We sold everything.
We bought the mattress, we turned on the plumbing, the electricity, got a driver's
license from the DMV, picked up just the basics.
And I mean, we did it all in three days.
It happened pretty fast.
We went to Ikea, bought a bunch of chairs, set up about 20 chairs on that first Sunday
morning.
God really blessed, because honestly, with three days to start a church, chances are
you're probably going to have nobody show up on that first Sunday.
That's a pretty difficult task.
In fact, it's impossible, but God really blessed.
And we had four visitors on that first Sunday morning.
We had four adult men.
Three of them were relatives of one another, and then one other guy.
And one of those men was just here on Sunday night, Jeremy Skaggs.
He was just here three days ago in service.
So it's such a blessing that somebody who came to the very first service was just here
three days ago at church, still coming, and his family comes as well.
So that first service, we had four in attendance, besides my family, so nine if you include
my family.
And then that night, we had two other visitors.
One of them turned out to be a sodomite, that's another story.
So that night, we had a guy that I won to Christ show up in those three days, and then
his sodomite brother-in-law, and they showed up, and we preached to them.
Wednesday night, it was just me and my family, which is to be expected.
But thank God, since our church started, we only had two services where it was just
our family.
And it was the first Wednesday night and the third Sunday night.
Because the next Sunday morning, Amanda, right here in the front, she showed up on the
second Sunday morning.
And it was pretty miraculous, the story about how she started coming, because she just happened
to be at a point in her life where she wanted to get in church, and she'd been
going to a church that was a charismatic-type church, but she wasn't really comfortable
with it.
She was embarrassed about the story.
But she got saved as a kid, but hadn't really grown in the Lord a lot, hadn't been
in church much in a very long time.
That as kind of a New Year's thing, you know, because it was January, because our
first service was on Christmas Day, second service was on New Year's Day.
As a New Year's Day thing, you know, she was going to be in church on that first
Sunday.
And she just found out that her church spoke in tongues, and she's like, I don't
want that.
So she was upset about it, and she's praying about it, and the same day that she prayed
about it and was upset about it, she got home and the invitation from our church
was left on the door, because I had knocked the door and she wasn't home.
So God just worked out that timing.
And right away, she started coming to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
And so there were a lot of services where it was just us and Amanda, and there were
a lot of services like that in the early days, okay?
So that first year, I mean, it was hard.
There were very few people coming to services, but you know, I was out soul winning and
kept working at it.
My wife and Amanda would go soul winning, but I didn't really have a man to go with.
I just pretty much would go by myself.
And different people came and went.
After a month, we had a great service where we had 20-some people show up just out of
nowhere, but then we pretty much dropped back down.
So after a year of hard work and soul winning and preaching and dedication, remember
on our very first service, we had nine?
One year later, one year anniversary, we had grown to seven, all right?
We grew from nine to seven, okay?
And we had seven people on that one year anniversary.
So that, you know, it's hard.
And the first year, I would say we averaged about 10 on Sunday morning.
The second year, we pretty much averaged 20.
The third year, we averaged 30.
Fourth year, we averaged 40.
Fifth year, we averaged 50, okay?
So it's nothing really exciting and just, I keep waiting for the church to take off
and it just never did.
But you know, now we're running 90 on Sunday morning, sometimes breaking 100, and so the
growth has picked up.
In the last two years, it's really starting to pick up speed.
We're starting to grow faster now.
But that's pretty much been the history of our church.
We spent the first year and a half meeting in my house, in my living room.
The kitchen counter was my original, I didn't even have a pulpit, just the kitchen
counter.
I'd beat the kitchen counter, have my Bible there, song book, and I was so used to
standing next to it because I couldn't really get behind it.
And when I got a pulpit, I stood next to it for the first few weeks.
I just wasn't used to standing behind it.
I'd stand next to it, you know, and I'd hold my Bible and be next to it, you know.
So that's what I was used to.
Now we didn't film the sermons back then or it would have looked like a cooking show,
you know, because I have all the pots and pans hanging by me.
But you know, we preached in the house for a year and a half and we started kind
of outgrowing the house and we kind of just got sick of having church meet in our house
three times a week.
So we ended up just getting a building just in this same parking lot.
This is our third building in this parking lot, you know, we just moved up to bigger
buildings and it's been a slow, steady growth.
And I think that anyone can agree, you know, has our church been perfect?
No.
Have I made, did I make mistakes when I was starting a church?
Of course, you know, I did the best that I could and I don't really have any serious
regrets about anything.
But honestly, I can say one thing, this church has been about zero compromise.
If we could say one thing about, you know, friend or foe will agree that this church
represents zero compromise.
And honestly, according to the world's methods, according to man's philosophies, starting
a church the way that we started this church, they would say it's not going to
work.
It's going to fail.
It's impossible.
Not happening.
But yet it has happened.
Through God's power, through the glory, you know, the grace of God has this church
become what it is.
And this church is a fantastic church.
People visit our church from all over because it's unique.
And the reason that it's unique is the quality of the people in the pew.
It's not just a one man show.
But you talk to the people of our church and they're all strong on what they believe,
soul winning, they love the Bible, and it's rare to have a church like ours.
And I'm just very thankful to God and grateful that he actually would give me the privilege
of pastoring a church like the church that I pastor today.
And it's not through any talent or skill that I had because I didn't.
And it's definitely not through tested marketing and methods that the world has honed and
developed because I pretty much started this church the opposite of what every book
told me to do and what every pastor I've ever had told me to do.
Not because I was just trying to be different for the sake of being different, but I've
honestly striven to pastor this church in a way that's biblical.
So we didn't start out handing out a bunch of flyers and having coffee clutches, but
we actually started out just knocking doors and just winning people to Christ.
You know, and yeah, how many thousands of doors did you knock?
Well, I didn't knock thousands of doors.
I knocked hundreds of doors because I was actually giving the Gospel at every door.
I want to thank God for Brother Roger Jimenez, who has started a church in Sacramento three,
three and a half years ago in Sacramento, California, using the exact same methods.
Now he's not exactly the same as I am, obviously.
We're different people.
We have different styles, different styles of preaching, but the doctrine is the same.
The soul winning is the same.
The methods are the same.
And his church in Sacramento is thriving.
They just had 81 on Sunday morning.
The week before that, 75.
The week before that, 70.
So I mean, it took us, he's going to pass us up, I know, because it took us six, seven
years to get to the point that he's at after only three years, okay.
So he's going to pass us up.
But you know what?
That doesn't bother me at all because it's God that does the work, you know.
And honestly, I hope that that church runs a thousand in Sacramento because that area
is really near and dear to my heart because that's where I grew up.
That's my hometown.
And then now Brother Dave Berzins up in Prescott has started the church just a little
over a month ago, you know, and he's only got, it's just like when we started, you
know, one or two people coming.
But honestly, that is how we were for the first year or two.
That's how Brother Jimenez was.
I mean, if you talk to Brother Jimenez a year into it, he's running 10 like I was,
you know, dealing with groups of 10.
But you know what?
I honestly can say that when there were 10 people coming to the church, and I can honestly
say that when it was just my family or when it was just my family plus Amanda or just
my family plus Amanda and Roxanne, you know, it was just two people.
I preached like I was preaching to thousands because that's what it's about, reaching
individuals and reaching people.
And I thank God for what our church has accomplished, for the soul winning, the doors
that have been knocked, the people that have been saved, the lives that have been changed.
This church has had a huge impact in the last eight years, and it truly is a miracle.
And we should be thankful to God for it and understand that it's a phenomenon.
It's unique.
And just the amount of doors that we've knocked is just, it's almost hard to even
fathom, you know, that one church could give the gospel to that many people.
And we're just a small, humble church.
I mean, we're meeting in a strip mall.
You know, we don't have the stained glass.
We don't have the tall church spire, but you know what?
We have the power of God, we have the Holy Spirit, and we have the Bible.
And so thank God for Faith Forward Baptist Church and what He has done.
And anything that He does in the future, He gets all the glory.
Because if we use man's methods and, you know, Pastor Anderson, we're suave, which
he's not, you know.
If he had any people skills, which he doesn't, you know.
Brother Jimenez, he's got the people skills.
That's why he's passing us up.
But anyway, you know what?
He preaches just as hard as I do.
Anybody who listens to him will tell you.
And Brother Dave preaches just as hard as I do.
But you know what?
God can still use preaching.
He can still build an independent, fundamental Baptist church that is based upon zero compromise.
And I mean that.
And I'm not a perfect person.
I can't say zero sin or zero failure or zero mistakes on my end.
But I can say one thing from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, zero compromise.
And that's the legacy of our church for the last eight years.
And God's blessed it.
So let's not change.
You know, let's not change in the sense, we should change in the sense that we should
get better.
But let's not change the zero compromise philosophy that we've stood for in the last eight years
because that's one great thing that we have going for us.
Before I move on with the sermon, I just want to ask if there are any men that are
here tonight that would like to just give a short testimony of just our church, just
something that you want to say about the church or just something that has happened
in your life, just something, thoughts in regard to the anniversary.
Brother Romero, you want to stand up and say a word about our church?
That's our legacy.
We're producing a lot of children.
All the people that moved here probably testified at the same thing.
So it's really a, you know, this church impacts a lot of people, not even just
out and about.
Man.
Anybody else have anything?
Brother Garrett?
Yeah, I'm just thankful for this church and everybody here.
I got saved in this church.
I learned so much in this church.
And I had eight mentors teach me to go to church.
And I got saved in this church.
I had eight mentors teach me to go soul winning.
And only one of them are still in this church right now.
But I'm so appreciative of everything I've learned from all the congregation members.
And when we have new members come in, I always learn something, you know, from them.
And as far as their walk with God or what they see at the door.
I've stolen a lot of stuff from Brother Segura.
As far as what I see at the door, he's a great preacher.
And then coming to preaching classes, it's just amazing how much you can learn
at this church.
And I'm appreciative for Pastor Anderson, and they're very, you know, sitting here.
Men.
Yeah, it's a great church where, you know, he and Brother Garrett, he showed up back
in what, October, September of 2008, something like that.
And he learned soul winning from eight different people.
You know, that's great that we have a lot of men out soul winning, and a lot of
ladies out soul winning.
Rick, did you want to say something?
Yeah, I just moved out here six months ago from Tucson.
And up here, I just fell in love with the church from the preaching.
A year ago in November, I was saved.
I got saved.
And I couldn't tell you how much I've changed in the last year, just from what God's doing
through this church and what I've done.
I got baptized in this church, got married a week later, I mean, this church has completely
changed my life, and I want to continue with this church because I love this church.
Amen.
Well, you know, it's great what God's done, and let's stay right with God, and
let's not try to do it in our strength.
And the way we do it in our strength is by changing things to conform to the world.
And the way that we do it in the power of God is by saying, you know what, we stick
with what the Bible says.
Preach hard.
Go soul winning.
Do it the old-fashioned way, and it still works.
And so, but Jon?
Thank you.
I think it's a blessing to have Pastor Anderson here who's been patient enough to not only
do his preaching, but do a show on the internet, and that's how I found out about
this church.
And I think it's easier as a young man to be a Christian, by being here, because
I can see that they are really enjoying the Christian lifestyle, and it's a state of mind and it's also a language that's spoken here at this church that I really personally feel very comfortable with.
God bless you, brother John. How long have you been coming here now, John?
About six months.
About six months, yeah.
Alright, great. Well, let's move on with the service, but I just wanted to take a moment and just reflect and just be thankful for our church.
I'm very thankful for our church because whenever you're feeling down or whenever you begin to waver, it's just great to be surrounded by strong people and spiritual people that can lift you up and help.
And, you know, we all learn from each other. Like brother Garrett, who's been here for longer, even when new people show up, he's learning from them on soul winning.
I pick up things on soul winning when I'm a silent partner on soul winning. You know, we're all growing together in the Lord and it's great to be around iron that can sharpen iron.
And I love our church and I thank God for our church. Just wanted to take a few minutes and just kind of talk about the history of our church and just take a moment to be thankful for it.
But anyway, let's go to Job chapter 8 tonight. Let me just quickly preach through Job chapter 8.
Job chapter 8, a lot of it is a little bit repetitive. I don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking about some aspects of it just because Job's friends just keep hitting him with the same arguments throughout the book of Job.
They start out by accusing him of sin and telling him, don't you understand that when you do right, everything always goes your way all the time and whenever you do wrong, you're going to be punished?
Basically a prosperity gospel type message, almost a Joel Osteen type message that says that if you serve God, everything's going to go great and you're going to be healthy and you're going to be safe and if bad things are happening to you, well, you just don't have enough faith or you're just not right with God.
And Bildad the Shuhite's reasoning is the same as a life as the Temanites' reasoning.
Let's read a little bit of it and then I want to get into something unique that Bildad brings up and that's what I want to focus on.
But in verse 1 it says, Then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said, How long wilt thou speak these things? And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
Now we have to put in perspective the fact that we know the end of the book and we know what the New Testament teaches about Job and what the prophets taught about Job.
That Job was a man of God who was speaking the word of God and he was speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.
This is what Bildad is referring to as a strong wind.
This is what Elihu refers to as being false doctrine or vain words as well.
Job's friends are wrong.
In chapter 42 the Bible makes it clear, God says, Job spoke that which was right concerning me.
He said my wrath is kindled against his three friends.
They did not speak that which was right concerning me.
Now that doesn't necessarily mean that everything Bildad says is wrong.
There's a lot of truth in what Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar say, but in general they were wrong.
We know that and we know that Job was right.
So Bildad says, how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
Verse 3, doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert justice?
If thy children have sinned against him and he have cast them away for their transgression,
if thou wouldst seek unto God betimes and make thy supplication to the Almighty,
if thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
Now there's no if about it.
We know from chapter 1 and chapter 2 that he was pure and upright.
The Bible says that he was a perfect man and an upright that feared God and eschewed evil.
Bildad doesn't believe that.
Bildad's accusing him of being sinful.
Bildad's accusing his children of being sinful because his ten children died when the house collapsed on them.
Same thing that Eliphaz accused him of.
They're attacking him.
They're not comforting him.
They're throwing railing accusations at him.
And a sin that I often see today in 2013 that the Bible often warns us about is being a false accuser.
Now this is a major sin.
Over and over again the Bible lists this as being a serious sin.
Go if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 3.
1 Timothy chapter 3.
Because they're basically accusing him of sin and accusing his ten children of sin without having any evidence.
I believe that people should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
We shouldn't assume the worst about people.
If we don't have any evidence that they've sinned, then we shouldn't just assume that they've sinned
or just guess that they've sinned based on things like, well, bad things happened to them.
A lot of people will look at someone who gets arrested and say,
well, if they hadn't been doing anything wrong, they wouldn't have been arrested.
They were obviously doing something wrong.
Okay, tell that to Jesus.
Tell that to Stephen.
Tell that to all the apostles.
Tell that to the Old Testament prophets.
They're all arrested.
You can't just assume, well, if somebody's arrested, they did wrong.
If somebody has bad things happening to them, well, that means God's not pleased with them.
When you look at the qualifications for the pastor and the deacon, and it is explained
here in 1 Timothy chapter 3, this is a true saying, verse 1,
If a man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth the good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, on and on and on,
and then it goes down to the deacons.
Go down to verse 11 of the deacons, and this says,
Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers.
What's a slanderer?
A false accuser, somebody who says something negative about someone else that isn't true.
They're a slanderer.
The Bible says that a man can't even be a deacon if his wife is one who falsely accuses other people.
Flip over to Titus chapter 2, just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
Go to Titus, and again he brings this up in regard to the ladies of the church,
and he says in verse 3 of Titus 2,
The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior, as becometh holiness,
not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things.
If you flip back a page or two to 2 Timothy chapter 3,
when God is listing off the sins that will characterize the last days,
he says in verse 1,
This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come,
for men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers.
Now this is a list with some serious sin.
Incontinent fears despise of those that are good.
The ultimate false accuser is the devil.
That's what his name means.
The name devil means accuser.
That's what he is.
He accuses the brethren before God day and night, the Bible says.
He accused Job falsely,
and when we are making false accusations we are committing a serious sin,
and we are acting as a devil when we do that.
That's what we are being like.
Someone who is very ungodly and devilish.
When we make false accusations about people.
And so often people just let false accusations fly.
And we need to be careful.
Now I am all for preaching against sin.
I'm all for rebuking sin.
But we need to preach against sin and rebuke sin that is known.
Not just make things up,
and just throw things out there until something sticks, you know,
and just make these flying wild accusations.
This is what the Bible calls a railer.
Because the Bible talks about not making a railing accusation.
And the Bible says that if a Christian is a railer,
would such a one know not to eat?
Very serious sin.
We don't talk much about it.
And in fact, sometimes people will accuse people of things
that aren't even mentioned in the Bible.
And then they are violating a major commandment of the Bible by being a false accuser.
You know, for example, when it comes to Christmas,
different people have different opinions about celebrating Christmas.
Some people believe that it's good to celebrate Christmas,
other people believe that it's wrong to celebrate Christmas.
And honestly, I can say I'm tolerant of both views.
Because, you know, a hymn that is weak in the faith receive ye,
but not to doubtful disputations.
I don't want to argue with someone about something that is not a biblical issue,
but so often the anti-Christmas crowd, they'll take the fight to you,
they'll attack you, they'll judge you, they'll rebuke you,
but often they'll false accuse you.
And it's a very serious sin.
And it's amazing how lightly someone would say to a Bible-believing preacher
or a godly Christian lady, you know, you're worshipping Baal.
Now think about that. Isn't that a pretty serious accusation?
You're worshipping Baal.
You're worshipping Satan.
You're worshipping Nimrod.
Now I can understand if people say, you know what,
I don't want to celebrate Christmas because, you know,
I believe it has pagan origins, I don't believe it's right.
You know, I preached a sermon about why we celebrate Christmas,
why I don't buy into that logic or that philosophy.
But honestly, if people have a different opinion,
I'm more than happy to allow people, you know,
their own freedom of opinion and choice.
And even people in our church that have said in the past, you know,
hey, we don't do Christmas, fine, no problem.
But when you're going to sit there and tell somebody you're worshipping Satan,
you're worshipping Baal, or for example,
churches that have 501c3 tax status.
Which, by the way, our church does not even have a 501c3 certificate.
But I have been accused of that repeatedly.
Oh, Pastor Harris, it's 501c3.
Because I defended men of God who are labeled as false prophets
because of some stupid piece of paper, some tax,
they're just trying to be legal and not go to jail.
You know, and look, so what?
People have different opinions about it.
I can see both sides.
It's not a biblical issue.
Just like the Bible doesn't tell us Christmas, no Christmas,
you know, 501c3, no 501c3.
Look, even if you think 501c3 is wrong,
even if you think the church is wrong for having that certificate, okay,
does that make it right for you to say he works for the IRS?
He is a FEMA pastor.
You know, he is on the FEMA response team.
He is part of the New World Order.
He is a puppet of the government and the IRS.
And he's a false prophet and that's not even a biblical church.
That church isn't even a biblical church.
I mean a church that preaches the Bible, goes soul winning,
King James only, loves the Lord, sings to him.
And look, if the pastor is trimming the message or censoring the sermon,
that's a problem.
If he's afraid to preach certain things because of the government
or because of that tax status,
and he says, oh, I can't preach this, I can't preach that,
and he's leaving out part of the Bible, that's a problem.
But a lot of the guys that they'll point to and attack
are preaching the whole counsel of God.
And they're preaching the Bible and they're doing the best that they know how
and then people are lying and falsely accusing them.
And if you say about some man of God,
he's a FEMA pastor, he works for the IRS,
he's afraid to preach the truth,
to the guts, when in reality he does,
you're a false accuser and God's going to punish you for that, my friend.
You will be punished for breaking God's rules here
and being a false accuser.
And it's funny because people who even attack me,
we don't even have that status.
And they just, you know, you're a puppet of the IRS.
No, the IRS and I aren't getting along very well right now.
Okay, just FYI, okay.
And I pretty much hate the IRS as much as any person
who's living and breathing right now, okay?
Just so you know, all right?
But yet people will accuse you of stuff that's not true.
I don't see how somebody can accuse me of trimming the message.
What have I left out?
And if I've left something out, if I've been afraid to preach something,
show it to me and I'll do it this Sunday morning.
I promise you, if there's something in the Bible that I'm not preaching,
that I ought to be, that I've been afraid to preach,
show it to me and I will do it this Sunday morning.
Honestly.
But yet people will make false accusations about it.
And they don't really do it about me as much
because I guess once you get your face bashed in by the police,
they stop saying that about you.
But anyway, I'm more am defending other good men of God
who are just, they just are Bible-believing preachers
but they just have different paperwork than you think they should.
You think they should be a living trust instead of a corporation.
It's like, what?
They're like, don't be a creature of the state, don't be a corporate.
Do a living trust.
Well, that's some legal entity created by the state too.
So what I'm saying is I don't need to listen to you falsely accuse men of God
because guess what?
Every man of God is not a lawyer to figure all this garbage out.
We just want to preach and just go soul winning
and we don't even want to even deal with the government.
So people are doing the best they can.
You falsely accuse them.
You just make railing accusations about people.
People have accused me, oh, Pastor Anderson,
he made that Bible prophecy movie because it's just all about the money for him.
When I didn't even get paid a dime, not even one cent.
Or, oh, he's just selling it.
We gave it away for free.
I've never sold it.
Someone else, the filmmaker sells it and he's trying to make a living.
Good for him.
What I'm saying is false accusations frequently fly.
We ought not be a part of it.
If people have done wrong and we need to rebuke sin, that's one thing.
But we're just throwing out these railing accusations,
guessing about people's intentions.
Even within marriage, even with your own children,
even amongst your friends and coworkers,
just don't be a false accuser because that's what Bill Dadd and a life has worked
and God's wrath was kindled against them.
The main thing they got wrong was they falsely accused Job and his children.
They had no basis for it.
Don't fall into that trap.
But back in Job chapter 8, I want to show you what's unique
about Bill Dadd the shoe height's argument in chapter 8
because a lot of it's just a rehash of what the other friends have said
and we'll continue saying.
But look what he says in verse number 8 of chapter 8 of Job.
For inquire I pray thee of the former age
and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers
for we are but of yesterday and know nothing
because our days upon earth are a shadow
shall not they teach thee and tell thee and utter words out of their heart.
Now as I explain this to you and before I explain it to you,
let me just remind you of a major tenet of Eliphaz's argument
besides the generic just if you're good things will go great argument.
Flip back quickly to chapter 5.
Let me just quickly refresh your memory.
Look what Eliphaz said in chapter 5 verse 1.
He said call now if there be any that will answer thee
and to which of the saints wilt thou turn.
And what he means there if you get the context of the chapter
he's saying no one agrees with you Job.
Everybody agrees with us.
You're all alone on this.
You have no one on your side.
Which of the saints?
The saints are who?
People that are safe.
Who are you going to turn to?
Who are you going to get on your side?
Does anybody agree with you?
No.
You're all alone.
And then if you go to the end of the chapter in the last verse,
I don't want to spend a lot of time on it because I preached it back in chapter 5,
but look at verse 27.
Lo this we've searched it.
So it is.
Hear it and know thou it for thy good.
And this is what the devil will often try to do.
He'll try to make you feel like you're all alone.
You're the only one who believes this.
You're all by yourself.
Go with the crowd.
You're all by yourself.
Everybody agrees with us.
We've searched it.
We've done the research.
We've looked at it.
And they'll use that when you're standing on the word of God.
And you're standing on clear biblical truth.
Their argument is, well you're the only one who believes that.
You're the only one who teaches that.
And you never are.
Never.
You never are.
But he'll try to make you feel like you are.
Remember Elijah felt that way?
And God had to tell him, no there's 7,000 other people that have not bowed to the devil.
You're never alone when you're standing on this book.
Cause this book is in every country in the world.
Every language.
There are people all over this world with the same Holy Spirit inside them that's inside you.
And you are never alone when you're standing on the clear teaching of the scripture in this book.
But the devil wants you to feel like you're alone.
And he wants you to trust the multitude.
Trust the crowd.
Trust scholarship.
They've looked it out.
They've researched it.
They've searched it.
And you know, they've found that the King James is filled with errors.
You know, whatever these scholars.
But when you go and actually check up on their research, you find out it's all a fraud.
Okay.
So that's what the devil will try to do.
But another tack that the devil will use, in chapter 5 he's trying to make Joe feel
like, you're on your own.
You're by yourself.
You're the only one who believes this.
In chapter 8 he uses a different approach.
He says, inquire I pray thee of the former age.
In verse 8.
Try to get you to believe that in order to get a true interpretation of the Bible,
we have to go to old preachers who've been dead for a long time, and go with what
they believed.
And this is where we go to the church fathers.
What did the early church fathers believe?
What did Athanasius and Irenaeus believe?
What did Justin Martyr believe?
They want us to go to the so-called church fathers, or they want us to go to the Protestant
Reformation and go to these guys and figure out what they believed, and that that somehow
is the true doctrine, or even to preachers of the 20th century who've died.
And they say, this is who we go to to get the truth, and let's figure out what
they believed and what they taught.
Instead of just going with, number one, what the Bible says, and number two, what Spirit-filled
men of God alive and breathing and preaching today are preaching.
Look, we need living preachers.
I mean, it sounds radical, but we need living, breathing preachers who are living in 2013
that will preach us the word of God, and we can't just be stuck in a time warp of
some preacher of the past.
Now look, I know God doesn't change, I know the Bible doesn't change, but a lot of these
guys from the past are not what they're cracked up to be.
And I'm not going to sit there and say, like Bildad says in verse 9, we are but of yesterday
and know nothing.
That's simply not true.
We have the mind of Christ.
We don't know nothing.
We know everything, because it's all right here in this book.
I'm not saying I personally know everything, but I have access to everything right here.
And the Bible does not teach what Bildad's saying here.
No, Job, you can't go with what you've learned from the Holy Spirit and the word of God,
Job.
You don't know anything.
We don't know anything.
We need to go back to the early church fathers, Job.
We need to go to the former age, and let's go back.
Here's the problem with that logic.
A lot of these guys from the former age, the reason we even know about them and even
have their books and their writings and their audio recordings is that they were popular
preachers.
You know, an unpopular guy, his book didn't get published.
His writings didn't survive.
His audio and video wasn't being recorded back then when it was just really high tech.
I mean, now everybody's being recorded, if not voluntarily, then by the NSA, right?
But everybody's being recorded now, but back then, I mean, it was only these big popular
preachers that were even being recorded.
And so these big popular preachers, they're compromisers.
They're false teachers or else they wouldn't be popular.
There's no such thing as a preacher who is a righteous, godly prophet that's loved
by the world.
Not going to happen.
Jesus said, the disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his Lord.
If they've called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call
them of his household?
And he said, look, you're either better than I am or you're going to be persecuted.
So either these preachers of the past were better than Jesus or they weren't following
Jesus.
Because anybody who followed Jesus, he said, more than all my brethren of the world
hate you.
And yet these popular preachers, we go to their writings, we go to their sermons, and
somehow that's authoritative.
Well it's not authoritative with me at all, it means nothing to me.
This book is the only teaching that matters.
And sometimes it can be helpful when man also preaches you the Word of God.
God did give us apostles and preachers and teachers, obviously we do not have apostles
today.
I'm just quoting the scripture, back then they did have the apostles living and breathing.
Apostles were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ.
Apostle Paul was the last one.
But he gave the apostles, pastors, teachers, evangelists, he gave them to edify the
church, right?
But he doesn't say, go dig up some old preacher from the past, he's going to edify you.
I think it's more profitable, my friend, to listen to today's preaching.
Well all of today's preaching is compromise, wrong.
There are still 7,000 men that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
It's not that we're living in a day where no one's preaching the truth, no one's preaching
the Bible.
We need to get in a local church, you're here tonight, you've succeeded, you need
to get planted in a local church with a local body of believers where you're sitting next
to living, breathing, human beings that are filled with the same spirit you're filled
with, have the same Bible you have, and listen to preachers preach and men preach
that are living today in 2013 that believe the Bible.
And we can know the truth, we can know the mind of Christ, we can preach the truth
and stand on the truth and learn the truth, and we don't have to live in the past
of, oh man, wouldn't it be great if we were living in the 1800s and all the revivals.
Look up these revivals.
A lot of them are just a bunch of tongue speaking and weird stuff.
That's where the Mormons came out of, that's where the Church of Christ and the Seven
Day Adventist and the Jehovah's Witness came out of all those crazy revivals.
And the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, I don't have the verse memorized, but doesn't
it say something like, don't inquire why it was better in the former age than it
is now, for in so doing, thou didst not inquire wisely.
Can somebody verify that I roughly got the general idea of what that verse is saying?
Did I get it, son?
Did I get it right?
Can you quote it?
The thing is, may not thou water the cause before the day were better than he, for
thou didst not inquire wisely.
There you go.
That's pretty much kind of sort of what I said.
Now what I'm saying is, this logic that says, oh back then man, hell yeah, the preaching
is right.
No, let's do it today.
Let's have it today, let's do it in 2014.
Let's have a great church now.
Let's have great preaching now.
Let's learn the Bible now, not have this dumb attitude, well we know nothing.
Speak for yourself, Bill Dad, you know nothing.
Job does not know nothing.
Job was the greatest preacher that ever lived at that time.
He didn't know nothing, he knew a lot.
Bill Dad knows nothing.
And this attitude, oh man, if we could just get back to the Spurgeons and the Sunday,
no, no, let's just do it now.
Let's listen now.
Let's preach now.
Let's go to church now and quit, let these guys, look, I'm glad that there were great
preachers of the past, but if they have gone on to be with the Lord or some of them are burning
in hell because they weren't even Baptists or preaching through, and I'm not saying only
Baptists are saved, but I'm saying a lot of people that are not Baptists are not
saved because they believe another gospel or baptismal regeneration or lose your salvation,
okay?
So what I'm saying is, you know, a lot of these guys that were great men of God
that were saved that did preach salvation by grace through faith, you know what though?
Their works do follow them, but you know what, rest in peace, let's move on, right?
And some people, they so idolize preachers of the past who've died that they just can't
move forward.
And a lot of the preaching of the past can't really minister to you like the preaching
of today because the issues that they dealt with back then were different than the issues
of today.
The whole point of preaching is to make the Bible applicable to what we're dealing
with today.
You know, we're taking the Bible, which is timeless, which is applicable and relevant
to all generations.
But for example, when it comes to the sin of sodomy, homosexuality, preachers a hundred
years ago didn't need to preach about it as much or the same way as we do now
because it just wasn't really on their radar.
I mean to them, they see Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20, they're thinking like, man,
I don't even want to talk about this, nobody's even heard of this, nobody even wants
to know about this, why is this even in the Bible?
We know why it's in the Bible.
We know why it's there and today's preaching can focus on the things that we're dealing
with today.
The preaching of yesterday was great for yesterday and probably the best preachers
of yesterday will never even know their names until we get to heaven because they
weren't popular.
They weren't necessarily being syndicated and published and spread abroad.
But we know what the Bible says.
We know who's filled with the Spirit today.
We know who's serving God today.
We know who we can talk to today.
And there's even a double standard for preachers of the past.
I mean if preachers of today preach the same, if they believe the same doctrine that
some of these past preachers believe, you'd call them a heretic.
But because they're from the past, it's like, oh, well, you know, they get a pass.
Because boy, that biography is such a cool book.
And I like reading biographies too, but honestly, these guys, every time I read a
biography of these preachers, you're just like, what in the world?
Methodist?
Church of Christ?
What?
You know, loser of salvation?
What?
And then it's just, you know.
So what I'm trying to say is that we need to get off this mentality of going to the
church fathers.
By the way, call no man father.
You know, go to the church fathers and we go to the preachers of the past.
And whatever preacher that is to you, that's your idol or your hero from the past.
And I think it's great to have heroes, but in my opinion, your heroes should be
biblical heroes and living heroes.
I mean I just don't see where we're supposed to just idolize or follow people that are
dead.
They're dead.
You're following them.
Follow living people.
Go to a living church.
You know, have a living pastor.
Have a living soul winning partner.
Have living friends.
And talk to them about the Bible.
And preach with them and preach to them and be preached to by them.
We need to stop putting anybody on a pedestal just, oh, you're dead?
Well, you know, you enter the pantheon.
You enter the independent fundamental Baptist pantheon.
Because you've died, okay?
You know, and whoever it is, and I'm not saying every preacher of the past is bad
or good or whatever they are.
You know, Jack Hiles, for example, you can say, oh man, Jack Hiles, great guy.
And some people, that's their big hero, okay?
And whether good or bad, I don't even care, it doesn't even matter.
You know, I mean, did a lot of great things from my perspective.
I don't know.
I've never even met him.
I never even heard him preach.
I heard him preach on cassette.
You know, I'm dating myself.
I heard him preach on cassette.
And look, I'm not saying Jack Hiles is bad, but I'm saying, you know, Jack Hiles cannot
provide the preaching that you need today in 2013, no matter how many tapes you have.
You know, or pick the preacher.
You know, I just threw that out there as an example.
We need to just not make anybody from the past, the guy that we look to, like for
example, religions that call themselves Lutheran, I mean, what are they doing?
They got a guy in the past that they're just hanging on, they can't let go.
That's who is the guy they're looking to.
That should only be Jesus and the apostles and the Old Testament prophets are the only
people that are gone, and the only reason why is because the Bible has already certified
them.
We know they're legit.
The Bible has told us who they are.
And living, living role models, living preachers, it's a mentality that says we know nothing
that tells us, oh, I can't learn anything from my pastor, you know, it's all about what
Brother Hiles wrote.
You know, it's all about whatever Lester Roloff, or who are the idols, who are the
heroes?
John R. Rice, you know what he said, and I'm not saying these guys are bad guys or
good guys, I mean, who else?
Curtis Hudson, you know, I mean, and look, you can dig up dirt on these guys, maybe
it's Truman, who knows?
Some true, some false, I'm sure there are false accused out there, and then you can
also find great things about these guys.
Some of these people are like, people are kind of saying, what do you think about
this guy?
What do you think about this guy?
I don't know, man, because they're dead, you know?
I don't know, I've never met them.
It's hard to say.
Like, when people are living, it's easier to tell the fruit, you know, you can see
the fruit and see what's going on.
I just don't really think that these guys are relevant anymore, is my position.
We need to just move on.
We'll never move on from this.
But this attitude that says we need the former, and look, this is what Bildad is saying,
let's read it one more time, verse 8, for inquire I pray thee of the former age,
and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers.
For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are as a shadow.
Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?
Again, this is not God speaking.
This is a guy speaking who God said was wrong.
And what he's saying does not jive with the Bible when it says, he that is spiritual
judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, for who hath known the
mind of the Lord that we may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.
That ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things.
Isn't that what it says in 1 John chapter 2?
He said, I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you
know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
He said, you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things.
And then he said, but the anointing which ye have received him abideth in you, and
ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,
and his truth and his no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him,
and now little children abide in him.
That's not saying we need to go to the former age, or the church fathers, or the
dead preachers to guide us.
Some statement of faith.
Some Baptist confession from 1689 is not going to be my final authority.
You know, some statement of faith that was put together back when the southern
Baptists were fundamental, you know they put together the statement of faith.
That's what we're going to say.
No.
All of it's up for grabs.
This is the only thing we stand on.
The Holy Bible.
Every generation must stand on their own on this book.
You know, the things that are true, the things that are right, the things that we've
inherited from the previous generation that were good traditions, that are biblical,
scriptural traditions, let's hang on to them if they're scriptural, but let's prove
all things and hold fast that which is good.
And you know what, some things that we inherited from the past generation might have been wrong.
Let's test them with the Bible.
Let's prove all things.
Okay.
That's Bildad's argument.
So Eliphaz's argument, aside from the argument that they're all making, which is just a
prosperity preaching, Eliphaz said, you're the only one.
You're all by yourself.
Nobody agrees with you.
That was a lie.
Now Bildad says, well, you know, none of us today can really know the Bible as well
as those old preachers.
I'm about those old time preachers and the sawdust trail and they knew God back then
and today we just have a shallow Christianity, but let me tell you brother, they knew
God.
But look, we could write a book making it sound like we knew God, like years later
that nobody could really verify, not everybody fell on their face as soon as we got in
their presence, you know, and they all fell on their faces and you know, the power
of God.
You can say whatever you want in a book a hundred years later, oh man, these old time
religions, you know, but look, we can have it today.
I don't, by the way, I don't believe in the Laodicean church age.
Oh, it's just lukewarm today.
You are.
I'm not.
I'm living in my own little personal Philadelphian church age, my friend, where God has set
before me an open door that no man can shut.
You know, look, I'm not going to sit there and have somebody tell me, oh, we're living
in this lame time.
No, the Bible says in the last days in Daniel 11 that they that be wise and know their
God shall be strong and do exploits and shall instruct many.
That's my Bible prophecy lesson for you.
Daniel 11 says that.
This Laodicean church age, speak for yourself when you say we're lukewarm.
Speak for yourself when you say we know nothing.
No, that's you know nothing.
You're lukewarm.
Speak for yourself.
I know something, and you know, I have the ability to know everything I need to know
right here in this book.
I just need to study to show myself approved.
Let's just quickly blow through a few of these final verses, though, that was kind
of the unique thing.
Some of this is redundant.
That was kind of the unique thing that comes up.
But he says in verse 11, can the rush grow up without mire?
Can the flag grow without water?
Halsted as yet in his greenness and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrites' hope shall perish.
So when he talks about the rush growing without water, he's just explaining, look,
there's a cause and effect, Job.
You know, you push the button, the light bulb comes on.
There's water and soil and sun, the rush grows up.
There's a cause and effect.
He's saying that the cause of your calamity is sin.
The effect is the judgment of God.
He's just making this up, though.
He has no proof that Job has been in sin.
Then he transitions to that, saying that so are the paths of all that forget God, and
the hypocrites' hope shall perish, whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall
be a spider's web.
Meaning that eventually he's saying the wicked, the ungodly are all going to be punished.
That's true.
And we know that eventually the righteous will be rewarded, but the key word is eventually.
In the short term, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people
in the short term.
In the end, of course, everyone gets their just deserts.
Of course, we know also that the grace of God allows us to have salvation so that
we will not face the penalty of our sin in hell.
It says in verse 16, he is green before the sun and his branch, shooteth forth in
his garden, his roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.
If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I've not seen
thee.
Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.
Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers till
he fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with rejoicing.
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked
shall come to naught.
It seems that Job's friends understand that the destruction will come upon the wicked
later.
But what they don't understand is that the reward will come upon the righteous later.
And then in the short term, often good people are suffering, going through affliction and
tribulations and hard times and suffering in the short term.
But weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.
We know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, and that if we are righteous
and we are godly, God will bless our latter end.
Did God bless Job's latter end?
Yes.
He had double what he had before.
But in the short term, he was being, not even chasing her chest eyes, but rather being
tested with hard times, but his friends are being a false accuser.
Don't be a false accuser.
Only rebuke sin that is certain.
Give people, try to give people the benefit of the doubt, is what I'm saying, and not
just assume the worst about people.
There's so many examples I could give, but let's bow our heads and have a word of
prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, and we thank you for the book of Job.
Even in a chapter like chapter 8 where a guy's talking who you flat out said was wrong, who
you said that he did not speak right concern, we can still learn from it because we can
look at what he said and we can point out what's wrong with it, and we can understand
the error of the teaching of Bildad, the shoe height, and the integrity of Job's teaching.
Thank you so much for our church.
Thank you for eight wonderful years.
Please give us many more years ahead of us.
Help our best days to be ahead.
Help us not to live in the past, whether that be enshrining preachers of the past or
whether that be riding on our own past glory of, wow, we've done so many great things.
No, it was you that did it, and you can do it again tomorrow, so help us to be vessels
in 2014 that can continue to be used for your glory and to do even greater works, and
Jesus...